Grafenwoehr, Germany

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Right before, a whole lot of... stuff went down with one of my roommates. Unfortunately she was sent home. We still went to Berlin but we were not able to see a whole lot. I think my favorite part was the Berlin train station. It was huge! We did hit up some of the main tourist spots though like the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and kinda passed by the Jewish Memorial. The next day we took a bus tour which was nice and then I did some souvenir shopping.
The next weekend we stayed home. The girls who work on the Vilseck side of the Grafenwoehr training post came over for the weekend and we were able to go out to the bars to celebrate one of their 21 birthdays. Then back to work.
The next weekend we hadn't really planned anything very well. It wasn't until the night before at like 11 that we decided to go to Salzburg. We got really lucky too. It was only 20 euro round trip for the three of us to go. Plus we got like the last three beds at a hostel in the whole city. We went to the travel agency there first, which was good because we never would have been able to book our beds if we hadn't. After that we went to our hostel, paid, and came back into the main part of the city. We got dinner at this cute little place where we could sit outside and drink some red wine :) After that we basically just walked around the main part of the city. It was so pretty. I fell in love as soon as I could see the city from the train and it was even better up close. We got halfway to the fortress and took a bunch of pictures up there and then turned around because we didn't want to walk the rest of the way when we didn't know if the fortress would even be open that late. We hung out a little more out in the city and then went back to our hostel. The next day we walked around a different part of the city and were able to see the awesome park/garden where part of the Do Re Mi song from the "Sound of Music" was filmed. It was so pretty and the flowers were like arranged in patterns it was so cool. Off to the side a little was this little circle with statues of little people or something that were really funny looking. We took a bus tour after that which was just ok. It was one of those "hop on hop off" ones but since it wasn't the tourist season there wasn't another bus to hop on if we hopped off ours. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get a whole lot of good pictures because of this. Everything had to be taken from our spots on the bus. The good thing though was that it was an amazingly beautiful day. Everything was clear and green and gorgeous. We got off the bus tour at the main station and had lunch at this little expensive restaurant there which was just ok then hung out till it was time to catch our train home.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

So since Prague I've been to Amberg and the Neuschwanstein castle. Amberg was pretty cool. Right off the train station there is this whole road that has a bunch of shops and restaurants and stuff. In the middle there is a big square too and while we where there there was this guy with a lama which was kinda funny. I got a super cute pair of boots which I love to death :) There were a couple stores there that were super cheap too.
After Amberg I went over to the Vilseck side of the Grafenwoehr base and hung out with the Camp A's on that side. We went to this castle party for Fashing a couple miles from their apartment with some of their coworkers. Stopped at a bar before we got to the castle, which really wasn't a castle. It was more of like a little tower with half a wall going around. Lots of drinking and watching weird old people dance...
The castle trip to Neuschwanstein was quite the adventure. We had to be up at 4 in the morning to catch a taxi to the train station where our train left at like 530 in the morning. The train ride itself was pretty uneventful. We got to Fussen which is where the castle is and caught a bus up to where the castle is. We got out tickets but we had a little while to wait before our tour for the first castle started so we stopped at some of the little souvenir shops. I got a ton of stuff that I then had to carry with me on all the tours but it wasn't that bad. We got a tour of the first castle (I forget what it was called) which was the one that the guy (I don't remember what his name was) built for his parents. That was pretty cool. Then we took a horse drawn carriage ride up to the Neuschwanstein castle. I felt like I was participating in animal cruelty... The castle was amazing though. It was gorgeous!!!!!!! Only like 1/3 of the actual castle was finished though so there wasn't a whole lot more to see. We had dinner at this like mini Hofbrahaus though which was really cute. I didn't really like what I got though which was like this weird pork patti. We walked back down the hill after that and got some mini wine bottles at the grocery store there and waited for our train to come at the station. This is where it got messed up. We got on our train and it was having these weird spasms and making funny noises. It would stop for like 5 min periods of time and then keep going. So we thought we were going to get to the station that we needed to switch at super late, but we got up to check where we were and realized that we were there right on time. We got all our stuff together lickity split and went to the doors but they wouldn't let us out and refused to open. So.... we missed out station and our train that would take us back. We had to go all the way to Munich and switch stations there in order to get to Nuremberg, but my the time we got to Nuremberg it was like 1230 at night and no more trains left that station to our base till 530 the next morning. Therefore we had to spend the rest of the night attempting to get some rest of a bunch on uncomfortable tables and chairs in the station. There were tons of people there too though. There were a bunch of police wandering around which was nice to know, but also a ton of drunks and some homeless people. At one end of the station there was this club/bar that was going on all night and drunk people kept coming in and out of it. A group of drunk guys were singing some sort of random German songs at the top of their lungs and it was super annoying. We got the first train that left though that morning and were back at our apartment at somewhere around 630. Slept most of the next day and then went back to work the day after that. That's enough adventure for me to last the rest of the trip :)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The trip to Prague was pretty uneventful. My friend Leo and I took a train to get to Nuremberg, and then from there a bus into Prague. The bus pretty cool. It was a two story one and it wasn't super cramped either. We got to our hostel called Sir Toby's (I highly recommend it) checked in, and then went into the Old Town and took this free walking tour of the main part of the city. We saw the astronomical clock and the church that was right there on the square, the Jewish graveyard, and some other things but we mostly just walked by them and weren't able to actually go inside or see them. We decided to have dinner back at the hostel because there was a full kitchen there that we could use. It was nice not to have to spend a bunch of money on going out, we just went to the grocery store about a block away :) At the hostel we met this Australian girl names Jess who came along with us on a lot of the things we did. The next day we were able to walk up tot he castle and see the cathedral which was amazing! We also walked across the Charles Bridge and then had this dumpling dish which apparently is a must when in the Czech Republic but I just thought it was ok. We also saw the monastery there and had to pay to go inside the library. The day that we left we had a little time, so we hiked up to the huge metronome that is up on a hill and got a nice view of the whole city.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The center that I work at is the Grafenwoehr Child Development Center. Me and one of my roommates both work there together. We have to walk about five-ten minutes to get there which is super nice. We get an hour break everyday at twelve and it's nice to be able to live so close so that we can walk home and have some time to just relax.
Every morning before going to our actual rooms we go to take the Kindergarteners to school which is about a five minute walk away. Usually I'm in Room 4 which is the preschoolers. I love them so much. The lead teachers in the room are German which is cool. Out main lead has been working there for about five years. Another one of our teachers is pregnant too, which is exciting. There are so many teachers pregnant there. I can think of at least three right off the top of my head.
There are only five classrooms in our whole center. An infant/pre-toddler room, an hourly infant/pre-toddler/toddler room, a toddler room, a preschool room, and a preschool/Kindergarten (Strong Beginnings) room. We have a break room too but it's super tiny and every time we go to the bathroom we have to get the key from the front desk.
During the day when I get back from taking the Kindergatrners to school we have circle time and then do centers. Centers are basically where the kids can pick a section around the room that they can go to. They have "science," dress up, library, etc. After that sometimes we go outside. Then there is lunch and nap time. After nap time there is a span of time where I don't really know what we do. Snack is at three then they can either pick centers gain or we go outside and my day is done by five :) I'll have to try and take pictures of my center later when I remember.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

We were able to go to Munich last weekend. It was an awesome trip. The sun was out and the weather was nice. I almost wanted to take off my jacket! It was perfect for our trip. We started out having to take about a 30-45 min walk to the train station which wasn't my favorite part but we were all able to talk and what not. We got to the train station and got our tickets where the lady got mad at me for taking too long. For the train ride we had to take a train up to Nuremberg to transfer to one that went back down to Munich which was weird. The train ride was fun. One of them was a two layer bus and we got to sit on the top. This dude on the train kept asking us if we wanted to buy any food or whatever and was like dancing and stuff. It was kinda weird and funny at the same time. When we got to Munich we first went to our hostel to check in and drop our things off. Then we took a rail down to the main part that was pretty close to the train station. First stop was a church building close to the main center. Then we walked to the Glockenspiel which is in the main plaza part. It was sooooo pretty. I love that building. After that we stopped at St. Peter's church. We were able to go inside and also paid like 1.50 euro to go up to the top of the tower that over looks the city. It was gorgeous! Another stop we made was the beer garden, which was fun. Then some of us split up and I was able to get my first doner kebob and also some gelato. I got some souvenirs too. Then we went to the Hofbrauhaus which is this huge super famous beer hall. That was fun and loud and hot. There are so many people drinking way too much in there. haha! The next day we all went to the Dachau concentration camp. We only got like half an hour there because we had to be back to Grafenwoehr to catch a train back to our side of the base. It was cool to see it though, and depressing. Hopefully this weekend we will be able to take a day trip to Amberg which is pretty close to where we are and we can just have an easy day.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Well I'm finally better. It's super nice. I think I am finally starting to get used to the cold too which is amazing! It feel so much better not to be shivering the hole time. At work I've mostly been working with the preschoolers and I love them so much! They are adorable. There is this one little girl there, where whenever she gets all dressed up in her snowsuit to go outside, I swear she looks like a little bunny. It's so cute! While I was in the infant room the other day too it was really cute. They have these plastic foods there where the kids can make believe and stuff and there are some in the infant room I guess that they can chew on or whatever. But I was feeding this one baby when all of a sudden I hear, "Friends don't hit friends with celery!" It was super funny :D
I haven't had too much alcohol while I've been here. The first I had was this wine called Franken or something. And the beer we've have is usually Heifenweisen.
Tomorrow we start our adventure to Munich. We have to go to Vilseck, which is on the other side of the Grafenwoehr base. We are spending the night at the girl's house over there and then getting up early to hop on a train heading towards Munich :) Our hostel and everything is all set up already so we should be good to go. I'm super excited. I'll be coming back with tons of pictures and hopefully some souveniers too. I'll have to try and post some picture here on my blog too when I have some time. That's all for now! I'll have lots to report soon :)